Introduction
Back in July of 2012, the New York Times published an article announcing the opening of small business shops on Facebook. Since that time, you’ve probably seen the number of shopping based posts in your feed increase. This is Facebook trying to claim their slice of the ecommerce pie.

I get them – meaning product ads – all the time. Most of them are either gadget or watch related. I’ve purchased a couple things out of these ads. In most cases, these are Shopify powered vendors. They may or may not have a true web presence, and in most cases don’t have any other type of ecommerce platform than the one offered through Shopify. This would include, oddly enough, a number of vendors that either live or drop ship directly from China.

One such vendor is DBZDRESS. They had a HUGE push about six to eight months ago regarding iPhone battery cases. (by the way, a quick look on what battery cases they offer as of this writing, indicates they aren’t offering any…)

While it was available, I purchased the Flux Battery Case from DBZDRESS in mid-November 2016. Here’s my experience with the company and with the case from the time that I ordered the case until I received it, and started using it.

Order, Shipping and Product Receipt
Believe it or not, this is probably 75% of this story; and it’s probably one of the biggest messes I’ve seen in a while.

The timeline here is way more protracted than it needs to be. In fact, it was nearly criminal. I was very close to contacting the Better Business Bureau and reporting and filing complaints against the company I purchased the case from as well as Facebook. It got kinda weird.

I ordered the Flux Battery Case on 2016-11-15. My credit card was charged immediately, and my credit card was charged almost immediately. Shopify sent me an email about the purchase, and I waited.

On 2016-11-22, I got a notice from USPS that the device had shipped. On 2016-12.02 I got a notice that the case had entered customs in China. It was updated again on 2016-12-07 but there was no event detail provided. The last that I knew, the case was stuck in customs.

I contacted DBZDRESS on 2016-12-23. I requested assistance on the status of the shipment. It was ignored.
I contacted DBZDRESS on 2017-01-13. I requested assistance on the status of the shipment. Again, it was ignored.

I contacted DBZDRESS on 2017-01-27. I requested assistance on the status of the shipment. Again, it was ignored.

I received the battery case on 2017-02-05. I got a reply from DBZDRESS on 2017-02-06 telling me that I had received the case, and that it didn’t look like I needed help any longer. DBZDRESS thanked me for my time and my purchase, and sent me on my way.

This is by far the worst customer service experience I have ever had, with any vendor, EVER. I am not used to being ignored, not once or twice, but three different times, without my emails – which are the only way to reach out to them – even so much as acknowledged… until AFTER the product was received.

Based on this and this alone, I don’t care HOW great the case is, I don’t think I’ll be purchasing anything from these guys ever again. They’ve pretty much ruined any repeat business from me. I did a little looking into DBZDRESS and they have a forum on their website. After readying through the few comments that actually have been posted on their site, it’s clear that my experience is not unusual. In fact, it’s the norm.

Product Review
The Flux Battery Case is slim; and its simple. It contains a 2000mAh battery; and only adds 0.2″ of thickness and 2.5 oz. of weight to your iPhone. It provides little to no protection to your iPhone. So, do not look to it to do that.

The case provides power; and that’s about it. When the battery in the case is activated, it can take your native battery from 0% to 80% before it dies, itself. The case is supposed to support USB pass through according to the product’s website. However, the version that I bought from DBZDRESS doesn’t do this.

The battery in and of itself does a decent job of charging a dead iPhone. The specs for the case say it can take from 0% to 80% and it’s supposed to do it without going to sleep. That hasn’t been my experience.

My Flux Battery Case charges the battery or charges the case. It will charge both at the same time, IF I attach the battery connector to the phone and then plug the case in; but that’s about it.

An angled view of the case notice the open connector leads on the bottom, the stored connector on the bottom corner and the damage to my screen protector

The bottom of the case. The connector attaches here, via the Lightning port and the four leads.

The left side of the case. Notice the cut outs for the volume rocker and the sound switch.

The top of the case.

The right side of the case. Note the cutout for the wake/ sleep button and the power connector.

The power connector removed. A Lightning cable goes into the opening on the side of the case to charge it. The connector, inserts into the bottom of the case.

The power connector and the bottom of the case. Turn the power connector over and firmly insert it into the Lightning port on your iPhone to charge your iPhone.

The power connector attached to my iPhone 7 Plus.

The power connector attached to my iPhone. Note the green power light under the case. This notes that the case is charging the iPhone.

An elevated view of the power connector attached to my iPhone 7 Plus. You can more clearly see the damage to the screen protector, on both bottom corners, here.

Conclusion
In the end, the case does what its advertised to do, but not without a couple of hiccups.

It doesn’t do USB pass through, as versions now available, do. I’ve tried with different cables and different computers and USB connections. It simply doesn’t work.

The case also seems to sleep, or stop charging my iPhone, 10-15 minutes after the device sleeps. At this point, the case stops charging your iPhone, even though it still has ample charge left in its battery. This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I have no idea what is going on here; and it’s very frustrating

Waking the device does not reactivate the charging mechanism in the battery case. In order to get it charging again, you have to pull the connector out of the Lightning port and reinsert it. As long as the case’s battery has power, it will start charging your iPhone again. However, I still wouldn’t consider the charging mechanism to be reliable. If I have to wake my phone in order to insure that its taking a charge, I’m going to waste power that I would much rather just get banked into my iPhone’s battery than burned by the LCD or other component because the phone has to stay awake to get the most benefit from the case’s battery.

The cases provides little to no protection to your iPhone. Don’t look to it to do that. I have a $35 Invisible Shield glass screen protector on my iPhone 7 Plus that now needs to be replaced thanks to this case. I’ve used these screen protectors on my last couple of devices (iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and now iPhone 7 Plus), and I’ve never had to replace one of these. There are deep scratches in it near the top, two corners and chips and breaks in both bottom corners.

I’m not pleased with this case, and for the amount that I paid for it ($50USD, shipped direct from China) and with the atrocious customer service experience I had actually getting the case to me, there’s little to no chance I’ll ever purchase a case – or any other product, for that matter – from DBZDRESS. I suggest you steer clear of them as well. Based on how they dealt with me, I’m lucky I received the product I ordered at all.